Astronomers Discover a Planet Almost Identical to Earth

Just over a week after astronomers boldly announced that they would discover an Earth twin elsewhere in the universe within the year, NASA's
Kepler telescop spotted a pretty good candidate. Unglamorously named KOI 172.02 -- KOI stands for Kepler Object of Interest -- this planet is the most
Earth-like planet astronomers have discovered yet.

The differences are slight. It's roughly 50 percent larger than Earth and orbits a star that closely resembles our own sun at a distance that would
make the surface of the planet habitable. (The size makes it a "super Earth" rather than an "Earth twin.") With an 242-day long year, it's
slightly closer to its star than the Earth is to the Sun but otherwise enjoys all of the same ideal conditions as we do, as far as astronomers can
tell. "This was very exciting because it's our fist habitable-zone super Earth around a sun-type star," said Natalia Batalha, a Kepler
co-investigator at NASA's Ames Research Center in California. "It's orbiting a star that's very much like our sun. Previously the ones we saw were
orbiting other types of stars."

OK

Here we go....

This is becoming so routine it's getting scary. In my lifetime first they discover that other stars have planets, then they discover just how many
planets are out there then they say there could be "Earth like" planets out there then just a few weeks ago they state there could be millions of
possible "Earth Like" planets and now this.

As I stated last week when I posted another related topic thread something seems to be up...

There're lots of planets and lots of people and machines looking for them.

We found our first extrasolar planet in the 1990's, I believe.

It's like the exponential growth of computing.

Nothing conspiratorial about it.

BUT I doubt we've found earth. Just an earth-like planet with remarkable similarity.

What I'm wondering is what're the odds of finding a planet similar to our own based on hte best evidence and how do these odds compare to the data
we're uncovering?

I've got several links in my favorites about this. They estimate there're many billions of super earth-like planets. They estimate a few billion
earth-analogs. But how many have life and water? By "analog" I mean essentially equal in size/orbit/star/etc and other stats observable from here.

........
After the researchers analyzed the four months of data in this initial batch of readings from Kepler, they determined that 1.4 to 2.7 percent of all
sunlike stars are expected to have Earthlike planets — ones that are between 0.8 and two times Earth's diameter and within the habitable zones of
their stars.

"This means there are a lot of Earth analogs out there — two billion in the Milky Way galaxy," researcher Joseph Catanzarite, an astronomer at
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, told SPACE.com. "With that large a number, there's a good chance life and maybe even intelligent life might exist on
some of those planets. And that's just our galaxy alone — there are 50 billion other galaxies.
........

Our Milky Way galaxy is swarming with tens of billions of habitable rocky planets not much bigger than Earth, European space scientists have
discovered. Research with a giant telescope in Chile has found that there are probably around 100 of the so-called super-Earths in the Sun’s own
immediate neighbourhood.
........

It seems to be a slow moving disclosure happening all at once these days. I've always believe life exist elsewhere in our Universe and it just
unimaginable what it would be like to actually visit the planet and see what kind of creatures, maybe even intelligent beings on said planets. It
makes me feel all giddy just thinking about it, and it's things like that that makes life beautiful.

I hope we get to meet or see another intelligent being in our lifetime, I would truly be thankful for it.

On the the side note; one would have to imagine how many civilizations out there that are far more advance than us with the capabilities to be able to
travel to other planets. If you imagine that, you might as well imagine that they as well are finding many many other planets that they are calling
'Earth-like" planets, well not 'Earth' by their definition but the same meaning and you would have to imagine that's why they haven't came here to
Earth to visit us yet because they have so many options to choose from regarding which planets to visit.

Who's to say they aren't here already? Millions of UFO sightings have been reported World wide, and millions even believe in the possibility of
extra-terrestrials. I know I do.

IMHO-- There are too many galaxies in the universe, and (if you choose to believe it)..too many Universes in...time/space?...for there not to be
another "Earth like" planet SOMEWHERE. To think otherwise would be naive.

After many more "discoveries" and articles from these scientists...
A perceived threat will come from the skies in the form of "extra-terrestrials".
Just like the plan I read about years ago...

It will be the largest threat to ever hit modern civilization.
Global chaos will ensue.
But will it be real?

What will happen, you ask?
Everything from nationwide riots, to modern warfare.
The television will be it's greatest ally.
Striking fear into households daily.
Fear drives this nation to consume.
It will also drive it to accept whats coming.

Most interesting,Wonder if we're getting ready to move there.Home away from home so to speak.

It is amazing what is being discovered out there in our lifetime. I always hoped that they would discover earthlike planets in my lifetime. I have
always believed that they were out there and now we have at least some kind of confirmation. Nice find Slayer,S&F

This is fascinating news alright. It's one thing believing that we are only one of many similar planets capable of and conducive to supporting
similar life forms to Earth, but it is really another to actually confirm that one may have been discovered.
I agree that within our lifetime such monumental advances in human knowledge of our cosmos have occurred and seem to be gathering pace at a mind
blowing rate.

Who knows maybe it is part of a plan to ease the population into acceptance of disclosure of other similar life-forms or maybe despite other planets
being capable of supporting life as we know it they could be deserted and could possibly be a destination for humanity when our technology allows
it.

When we are finished destroying our home and make it so polluted that it can no longer sustain us maybe the human plague (sorry race) can move on and
trash somewhere else.

Thanks for posting Slayer. I had heard about this briefly not to long ago. The Kepler Telescope has really boosted our opportunities to see further
into space before and to see those quick wobbles going past a star to identify them as planets.

So, yes this is a cool find for sure!

Additionally

A Jupiter-sized planet known as PH2 b, discovered by citizen scientists participating in the Planet Hunters project, lies within its
parent star's habitable zone. "This is just a first step toward finding a habitable world elsewhere," Ji Wang, a postdoctoral researcher at Yale
University and the lead author of a paper about PH2 b, said in a news release. "Any moon around this newly discovered, Jupiter-sized planet might be
habitable. It’s very similar to what was depicted in the movie ‘Avatar’ — the habitable moon Pandora around a giant planet, Polyphemus.”

The Kepler telescope works by tracking slight decreases in the amount of light coming from 160,000 target stars caused by a planet or
planets passing by, or transiting, relative to the telescope's point of view. "You need very specific conditions to have liquid water. You can't
have your planet too close to your star where it's too hot. You can't have it too far away for the planet conditions to be too cold. We're trying
to find these planets in this very specific habitable zone," said Burke, who is with the SETI Institute in Mountain View, Calif.

That's outrageous!They do seem to be finding more and more earth-like planets.Hopefully we will one day have the technological ability to get
there.I'm not talking about our rockets either but something more advanced.

Originally posted by TheProphetMark
It seems to be a slow moving disclosure happening all at once these days.

I agree, even the Vatican has been showing interest in discovering life outside of our planet. Which would essentially contradict their teachings.
Not to say all their teachings would be bogus, just certain aspects of it.

***Religious folk and Atheists..Please don't turn this into a pissing contest, it's merely an opinion/observation.***

***ETA***

Originally posted by redtic
That's awesome! Now what do we do?..

Probe? How long would it take a probe to reach this destination? A lifetime? Two? More? Better get on it!

The next decade in space is going to be thrilling! More missions to mars (maybe manned), Voyager 2 going into deeper space, better technology for
detecting more plannets, the Hubble. The next generation are going to have a different point of view from space than we did.
Forgive me, I can't remember the name of the physics law of technology, but the law goes that computer technology halfs the time it takes to advance
to the next stage/advances doubles each stage.

The next 10 years are going to be the last 20 years condenced, it'll be twice as thrilling.

All that seems to be up, in my opinion, is a snowball effect.
1903 - Wright brothers flight
1908 - first series production aircraft
1926 - first liquid fuel rocket
1939 - first turbojet airplane to fly (380 mph)

With the amount of people on the planet now, combined with all the knowledge available to us to have more superior tech in a shorter amount of time,
well, I'll be surprised if we don't head out to one of these planets before 2030.

I don't think anything is up as much as humans have more technology with better computers (by far) than in the past epochs of space science. The
Kepler built on the discoveries of the 1990's and early 2000s, and expanded on them. When someone puts a better Kepler-like telescope into space (or
a possible earth based model) the discoveries will continue to flow like water.

Remember, just because there are EARTHLIKE planets, or planets that have a a shot at having conditions that MIGHT support our environment. There are
equally many chances that the atmoshpere and chemical makeup of the planet is different. 1 small difference can make a huge difference over billions
of years. Even if it were EXACT, the chances of it being at the same evolutionary point as Earth, are also very slim. It could be void of all life,
full of bacteria, full of past ruins, in nuclear fallout, full of robots...sky's the limit. Nonetheless, I hope I live long enough to get a good
look at "human habitable planet two".

the next step is that they discovered "people" on that world, the step after is that these people are orbiting our planet, the next step is
that these are our rulers, the step after that is that these people tell us they are from God and the final step is to accept them or go to war with
them.

and the best step is to pray to God.

and if they are from God, then everything is o.k.

the Bible is a manual, all the answers are in there, it will help to discern fact from lies, truth from lies.

you cannot go to war with another human, just like the marines, we leave no man behind.

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